Viewpoint: Criticizing the 'The Newsroom' critics

Not many were surprised when the debut of renowned writer Aaron Sorkin’s HBO series The Newsroom was met with both adulation and disdain.

Regular views loved it, journalists, on the other hand ... well, let’s just say they felt it left a lot to be desired.

But what is it about the show that polarizes viewers? I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

So, like any other budding journalist excited at the prospect of watching a show about my passion, I dove right in. Truth be told, I was interested in the glorification of a profession which is much more about hard work than glamour.

I was immediately inundated with spiels about journalistic ideals and reporting truisms, the type that would make even the purist reporter blush.

The Dow Jones tickertape in Times Sqaure June 28, 2012 with news that US Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Below the ticker is a ad with actor Jeff Daniels for "The Newsroom."

The shows stars Jeff Daniels as the enigmatic (but ultimately cantankerous) Will McAvoy, the lead anchor of the fictional Atlantic Cable News (ACN).

The coy Emily Mortimer plays executive producer MacKenize MacHale (her and McAvoy also have a past romantic fling that adds to the human aspect of the series). She acts as a beacon of home for the profession, constantly peppering Will with journalistic mantras about the importance and relevance of a delivering “real news.”

This is the core tenet of the show -- and these pious platitudes have turned the many journalists who brand the show as unrealistic and too ambitious.

And some of them have a point.

At times Sorkin’s show feels like an academic discussion more akin to a collegiate board meeting than an actual newsroom. The characters rattle off pre-learned diatribes with a level of fluency and cadence that "normal folk" could only dream of.

While Sorkin loves to wax poetic about the ideals of journalism, his views are actually a bit cut and dry. It comes down to the age old debate: are we reporting news that matters or news that will sell?

In the real world, the debate is much more nuanced than the black and white version purported on the show.

Apart from a select few entertainment-based news providers, over-sensationalism is not something most news stations practice on a regular basis. It does happen -- perhaps more often than us in the media would like -- however it is not the mantra that most follow, it’s more of a by product.

By taking such a bland viewpoint, Sorkin does journalism a bit of a disservice.

Painting the world of journalism with such broad brushstrokes only serves to annoy the journalism brass, some of whom have come out in full force lambasting the show.

The show does feel like a journalism utopia at times but though it may anger those in the profession, the general public seems to like it.

Most television shows cannot afford to spend the time to truly describe the twists and turns of its genre. It may be realistic, but it’s bad TV.

Reviews of The Newsroom have turned into journalistic showcases of skepticism and literary prowess. Nearly every review I have read from established journalists have been replete with unnecessary jargon and harsh criticism.

It’s almost as if some journalists salivate at the prospect of reviewing the show.

I imagine a gritty underworld of journalists slaving away at their MacBooks, chomping at the bit for their turn to bury the show under a barrage of cliche criticisms.

Quite frankly, the vitriol leveled by the media at Sorkin’s latest endeavor is short-sighted at best.

The Newsroom is gratuitous in some of its claims, but many shows are. We watch Breaking Bad and don’t question the likelihood of a high school chemistry teacher having the gumption to start a drug empire, so what's wrong with the rogue journalists on the show?

Most journalists are too engulfed in their own profession to objectively criticize a show about it. Imagine Lawyers reporting about The Good Wife -- it wouldn’t be pretty.

Yet at the end of the day, it's clear that The Newsroom takes risks (and sometimes it is a bit too much) but it’s a show about journalism and I’m just happy there’s one out there.

Terrance Ross is a Summer 2012 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.